


Legend

by sugaplumvisions



Series: Writeober 2019 - KNB Ficlets and Drabbles [15]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Boys Kissing, Character Study, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 05:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21049049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugaplumvisions/pseuds/sugaplumvisions
Summary: Sometimes Kuroko wished he wasn’t a shadow, wished that he could be the one in the spotlight.





	Legend

Kuroko had long made peace with the fact that he was never going to be in a Hall of Fame, never going to have his name on everyone’s lips. There were no gaudy trophies for best passes, no parades for the most assists. 

But sometimes he wished he wasn’t a shadow, wished that he could be the one in the spotlight. It wasn’t FAIR, is the thing. He loved basketball just as much as any of them. He practiced just as hard and for just as long, but by some cruel quirk of his birth, he was doomed to always stay in the darkness. 

Sometimes he thought he wouldn’t mind so much, living in shadow. The moment of his first alley-oop felt like a revelation. As the ball left his hand and Kagami slammed it through the hoop, he felt something swelling in his chest like pride. The feeling lasted when Kagami came to find him, and when he and Kise backed him up in street ball. He felt the warmth of the sun the whole way home. 

It was the Rakuzan game where he cursed himself, cursed the gods, cursed his body for being too small, too weak, too low on stamina. When his misdirection ran out, he felt useless. If he’d been born tall and strong like Kagami or Aomine or Kise or even Midorima, if he’d been born a giant like Murasakibara, then he could keep being useful. But he wasn’t. This was his body. This was his role, and it was suddenly taken away from him. 

Then he cracked the secret, figured out how to overwrite Mayuzumi, and suddenly nothing mattered but winning. Nothing but the ball, but Kagami’s skilled hands waiting for his pass. Their final alley-oop was so much sweeter, even, than their first. It was an expression of all the trust they’d built, of the love between a shadow and his light. 

He wondered if perhaps being a shadow wasn’t so bad, if it meant him and Kagami being their own kind of miracle. 

After the game, Kagami hung behind in the locker room, waiting for Kuroko to finish showering. 

“I love you,” he blurted out. “Thank you for winning with me.” 

“Kagami-kun--” Kuroko started, but he was cut off by Kagami’s lips on his, by his arms around his shoulders. He kissed like he played basketball, desperate and wild. Kagami finally pulled back, their tandem lungs burning. 

“I love you too,” Kuroko said. “Taiga-kun.” 

Kagami’s face lit up and Kuroko was once again reminded of why he called him his light. He smiled like the sun. 

Maybe he didn’t have to be a legend, so long as his Taiga kept looking at him like that.


End file.
